Using Coaching Menus with Chrissy Beltran Ceniceros – Episode 9

Nicole S. Turner holding a coffee mug and Chrissy Beltran Ceniceros on the right side with the words "Episode 9 - Using Coaching Menus"

I often hear from coaches that their teachers don’t seem to know or understand what they actually do. They are asked to make copies or watch the classroom and aren’t doing actual instructional work. So how can you address this issue and show your teachers the ways you can support them without completely overwhelming them?

In this episode, Chrissy Beltran of Buzzing with Ms. B is joining me to talk all about using coaching menus with teachers. Chrissy is a former upper elementary teacher turned instructional coach. She now is a coach for teachers and instructional coaches and helps them through an honest and practical approach to complex issues.

During our conversation, we talk about how the Simply Coaching Summit began and how a coaching menu helps solve the issue of teachers not knowing how you can help. Chrissy is sharing a preview of her session for the upcoming Simply Coaching Summit and covering what a coaching menu is, how it helps you and your teachers, the different ways a menu can look, and why they are a good option for showing your teachers how you can support them. Plus, Chrissy is sharing three pieces of advice that she has for coaches.

Topics Covered in Episode 9 – Using Coaching Menus with Chrissy Beltran Ceniceros

  • Chrissy’s background as an upper elementary teacher turned instructional coach
  • How the idea for the Simply Coaching Summit came about
  • What a coaching menu is
  • How using a coaching menu is beneficial to both you and your teachers
  • Different ways you can set up your coaching menus 
  • Why a coaching menu is a great way to share how you can support teachers without overwhelming them
  • 3 pieces of advice that Chrissy has for coaches

Chrissy is one of my coaching besties and is an absolutely amazing coach! Our conversation was filled with amazing information and a lot of laughter! I know you are going to love hearing from Chrissy and learning all about coaching menus!

Grab a copy of the Simply Coaching Summit brochure here!

Links from this episode

Chrissy Beltran Bio:

Every teacher deserves a coach, and every coach does too! This motivates Chrissy Beltran to show up daily to support instructional coaches in the hard work of growing schools. Chrissy started her educational work as an upper elementary teacher in El Paso, Texas. During her time as a classroom teacher, she started her blog, Buzzing with Ms. B, and sharing her resources on the site, Teachers Pay Teachers.

After teaching for nine years, growing her bank of practices, and applying research-based learning in her own classroom, she was offered a coaching position at another elementary school. As an instructional coach, she supported teachers in implementing new learning, building routines that supported student learning, and improving their practice. She also created workshops and trainings for other instructional coaches in her district. As she grew as a coach and created tools to help her do her own job, she began adding instructional coach resources to her TpT store.

When she was expecting her first daughter in 2017, Chrissy decided to go rogue, leave her school, and focus her work on consulting, creating resources, and serving as a coach for coaches! Since then, she has grown her online coaching community through her podcast, Buzzing with Ms. B: The Coaching Podcast, which is available anywhere you listen to podcasts and at her blog at buzzingwithmsb.com. The first season came out in 2020 and there are currently over 100 episodes!

Getting back into the groove after her second daughter was born in 2021 was a fun challenge, but the wheels are turning and Chrissy is adding a season three to the podcast! Every single podcast episode, resource, and course she creates is dedicated to building coaches who are confident, purposeful, and effective. Coaches deserve it!

Nicole S. Turner (00:03): You are listening to the Simply Instructional Coaching Podcast, a podcast for instructional coaches who want a simple plan with simple steps to get started coaching teachers. I’m your host Nicole, and I’m an elementary teacher turned instructional coach with a little bit of K-12 admin sprinkled in. Tune in for simple tips and strategies for what and how to coach teachers. Being an impactful instructional coach doesn’t have to be complicated. Let’s make it simple. (00:38): Hey, hey coaches. Welcome back to the Simply Instructional Coaching Podcast. I am so excited about this episode. I know I said that I’m so excited about a lot of episodes, but this episode is super special to me, and that’s because I have Chrissy Beltran here in the virtual flesh with me in our podcast. This podcast means so much to me because for the very first time she is on my podcast and I’m not on her podcast. Chrissy Beltran (01:12): It’s exciting. Nicole S. Turner (01:14): Yes. And so I want you guys to know that the reason why this podcast exists is because of her. She is the one who was like, “Nicole, do it. Nicole do it.” And I was like, no, no. And she was like, do it now. Done. And so if Chrissy Beltran (01:31): I can do it, you can do it. Nicole S. Turner (01:32): Yes. So this is how this lovely podcast began, and I am so excited about this. So Chrissy, welcome, welcome, welcome to the Simply Instructional Coaching Podcast. Chrissy Beltran (01:45): This is so exciting to be here. I am so happy that you have this. Thank you for having me. Nicole S. Turner (01:49): No problem. My first choice, soon as when I said, “Hey, I’m going to do some interviews,” I was like, Chrissy, you got to be on a podcast. Chrissy Beltran (01:57): Well, that’s why I was like, I better be signing up for this. Yes. You going to send me a link or what? Nicole S. Turner (02:03): Right. I was so professional. So listen, we talk all the time because Chrissy is one of my coaching besties, and I think that she fusses at me and gets me right all the time. And so instead of me just sending her a text and inviting her, I actually sent a formal email with all of this information and she replied to in a text and was like, I got your formal email. Chrissy Beltran (02:31): I was like, well, hello. Hello, Nicole. Yes. I would love to do an episode of your podcast Nicole S. Turner (02:39): Oh this is super exciting. I don’t know if any of you know, but Chrissy and I used to host a membership together and it was called Coffee and Coaching, and we spent every month together where we did live sessions and live videos and trainings, and you guys could still, if you’re interested, you can grab all of that. It’s about two years worth of content, and we’ll link that down below in the show notes about it. But this podcast right now just feels so much we are back at home. We were planning, kind of discussing what we were going to talk, and we were just like, let’s just do Coffee and Coaching 2.0. That’s just what it is that we have going on. So Chrissy, for all those that don’t know the magnificent Buzzing with Ms B, can you please go ahead and introduce yourself? Chrissy Beltran (03:28): Well, sure. I started out as a classroom teacher. I taught third and fourth grade in El Paso, Texas, which is where I live. And then over time, I was offered a position in instructional coaching, and I loved teaching very much, and I still miss it a lot. Although I got to say kind of glad I’m not doing it right now. Nicole S. Turner (03:49): Little stress. Chrissy Beltran (03:50): Yeah. Yeah. It’s rough. But I loved teaching so much. I taught all subject areas and I enjoyed it. And I had started teaching blog, and it was just, I had already started Buzzing with Ms B at that time, and I just loved to talk about teaching. But then I went and accepted this instructional coaching position, and I was sort of dumped in. I didn’t have a lot of experience with instructional coaching as a teacher. We had a quote, coach wasn’t even their title, but that was kind of what they did, but they didn’t do it with us. They did it with other grade levels, their primary grades. So I had very little experience with what that looked like. So whenever I started coaching, I was kind of building the plane as I flew it and just trying to see, okay, what works, what doesn’t work? Uh oh. That was a bad idea, not doing that again. (04:37): Yeah, lots of trial and error. And over time I kind of built my program into something that I felt good about, but it definitely took me a lot of time to do that. So whenever coaches are hurting now and they’re struggling to figure out how they want to do things as a coach, I can completely relate to that. I stayed home whenever our kids were born, not at the same time. They were born a couple years apart, but when our oldest daughter was born and I became a mama, that is whenever I decided to leave full-time public school. And now I work with coaches, teachers, and schools virtually mostly at this time. And I provide them with training, professional development, and online coaching support. So resources as well at teachers Pay teachers. So yeah, I’m excited to be here and talk a little bit about coaching with you. Nicole S. Turner (05:23): Yes. And so all of her resources are magnificent. If you are a literacy coach, she is the girl to go to. She has all of the literacy coaching things, and you just updated the Confident Coach, right? That’s the literacy course, the course for literacy coaches, right? Chrissy Beltran (05:41): Yes, the Confident Literacy Coach. I updated the modules that were about reading and writing practices into something that’s a little bit more updated, a little more current, and reflects a lot of the practices that we know support skilled reading and writing based on research and all of the findings we’ve have been working on over the last couple of decades. So I’ve updated those lessons because I wanted coaches to have those tools in order to support their teachers in all of this stuff, because it can be very overwhelming. (06:10): So, if you didn’t learn it in college, or even if you did and you’re asked to do it now, if you’ve never used it, it might feel very foreign and stressful to try to kinda slog through all the information yourself. So I put it into one spot so literacy coaches can get what they need and then turn it around to their teachers. So that’s confidentliteracycoach.com, and it’s being released actually in April. Nicole S. Turner (06:32): Awesome. Yeah. So by the time you guys hear this, it should be released. Chrissy Beltran (06:37): Yay. Nicole S. Turner (06:37): If I’m not mistaken. I can’t remember the schedule of when this actually goes live, but I know that that’s a course that you guys need to get. And I wanted to make sure that Chrissy talks about it because sometimes she doesn’t talk about all the wonderful things that she has to offer, but I wanted to make sure that you guys knew that before we dove into all of our favorite content and different things like that. So if you do not know, Chrissy and I have been a part of the Simply Coaching Summit since the beginning. Yeah. I sent her this random email. So am I random, Chrissy, that I just now send you? I hear myself constantly saying that I send her random email. Chrissy Beltran (07:19): That’s true. But you know what? It’s good stuff. It’s always good stuff. You did say, I was like, I remember telling my husband, Hey, this person sent me this thing, and it kind of sounds neat, but I don’t, I’m not totally, I don’t know. I think I’m going to do it, but I think I’m going to do it. This sounds pretty cool. I don’t know where it’s going to go, but okay, let’s just try it and see what happens. Nicole S. Turner (07:40): Oh my gosh. I know. Isn’t that crazy? So I remember sending an email to everybody. I remember when I was on a podcast with Gretchen, I talked to her about it, and I was like, don’t you remember when I just sent you a Vox and was like, “Hey, I want to do this summit thing.” And she was just like, what? Yeah, do it. She’s totally supported me. And then when I came back telling her all the details, she was like, whoa, whoa, whoa. What is this idea you have? (08:07): And I remember sending that email to you and Nita and Gretchen and was like, okay, this is what I want to do. Are you guys down for it? And I think because it was rooted in the fact that we really wanted to help coaches and we wanted to create something that was specifically for coaches by us coaches, I think that’s why all of our passions aligned, all of our passion and purpose for that aligned. And so I think that’s why this year as our fifth anniversary of the Summit approaches is it’s so, so real, right? It has that feeling that I just can’t believe that it has grown to that we are reaching 14, 15 countries, and we’ve reached over 8,000 instructional coaches since we started this. And so Chrissy Beltran (08:54): That’s just incredible. (08:55): That is incredible and amazing that we’re able to reach coaches not only just here right? Like all over the world. And so we are making a difference. And the crazy part about that, Chrissy, is that we’re touching not only those coaches, but those teachers and just think of how many students we get to lives that we get to touch every year. And so the Simply Coaching Summit is just, oh, it’s amazing to me, but I’ll let you talk about it a little bit more. (09:25): Yeah. Well, I think what I love is that it is so, so accessible because it’s, as a coach, if I wanted to get training, it was a lot of work, and it was a lot of money and time, and I had to go to a place and I was off of my campus and I was alone. That alone was like wrestling a bear to get time off you know, just to go learn something. And it was just so challenging. So it was really, it’s, I love that it’s so accessible that people can watch it on their own as they are able, they can say, you know what, I have every week, I’m going to spend a couple hours watching some videos. They have time to come back to it. It’s just excellent. Nicole S. Turner (10:04): Yeah. Chrissy Beltran (10:04): It’s such a realistic resource because it really reflects the busy lives of coaches. Nicole S. Turner (10:10): Absolutely. And so good that we get to talk about, I know you spend a lot of time working with coaches and coaching coaches, so you get a lot of what’s happening right now, and you’re able to really share that holistic view, just not from like, oh, I just work in one building, but oh, I work with 20 coaches, and all 20 of them are saying this. And so, hey, this is a strategy that we could probably share out to other people. So I think that that is the awesome opportunity that we have some people who are in the field, some people who are working and coaching coaches, and then of course we have some of the gurus of instructional coaching who’s been around for a very long time. So it’s a good mixture of everything that’s happening. Chrissy Beltran (10:52): It is. It is. And you’re right, we do try to do the problem solving. We say, okay, this is an issue that we see popping up over and over, and coaches, every time I talk to coaches, this is what I’m hearing. And then we try to create resources and training that will respond to that problem. Nicole S. Turner (11:05): Absolutely. So that lends us to talk about your session. Woo woo! Your session at the summit this year is all about coaching menus, and I’m going to let you dive into talking about what is a coaching menu? Chrissy Beltran (11:22): Sure. Okay. Well, a coaching menu is basically a document that helps you explain to teachers and show them exactly what kinds of coaching support you can provide. And what I like about it is it addresses the need that I hear from so many coaches, which is, my teachers don’t seem to know what they do. Coaches don’t always realize that’s the problem at first, though. Sometimes it takes a lot of conversation. (11:46): And then we get down to the root of the problem, which is that their teachers have no idea how they can help them. So then they’re asked to do things like make copies or watch the class while they run to the bathroom, or those things that aren’t essential. And sometimes you’re going to step in and do them every now and then just because you’re part of a team. But if you, that’s what you’re being used for, and if no teacher wants to work with you on actual instructional work, then we’ve got a problem of purpose. And the teachers don’t know what your purpose is. Nicole S. Turner (12:11): Yeah. Chrissy Beltran (12:12): You’re perceived more as admin or supplemental, but not what a true coach is, which is there to impact instruction in the classroom. So the coaching menu actually documents, okay, I can model a lesson for you. I can help you review some resources and find the perfect ones. I can help plan a lesson. I can debrief data with you. I can coteach. It gives all the teachers all these options about what you can do to support their practice so that they have a little bit of choice. It’s kind of like self differentiated. If you think about a choice board in the classroom, you’re not telling kids they’re not going to do something they don’t want to do. You’re telling them you’re going to do something. I have selected what’s going on this choice Board and you get to choose which one you think is going to be the best for you. And that’s what we’re doing with teachers. Nicole S. Turner (12:56): So this is really giving teachers a buy-in or an option that they get to choose their own learning. Chrissy Beltran (13:03): Exactly, yes. And like, aren’t we more invested whenever we get to choose something about our own learning? Nicole S. Turner (13:09): Yes. Of course. But I think that that’s cool. (13:11): Hey, Hey coaches, I have a few questions for you. Are you struggling to get coaching cycles completed? Are you still trying to figure out what to coach? Are you confused about how to coach teachers? If you raised your hand and said yes to any of these questions, I want to invite you to join me and more than a hundred instructional coaches inside the Simply Coaching Hub. The Simply Coaching Hub is a professional development resource and community hub that will provide you with practical, relatable, and actionable professional development for new and seasoned instructional coaches. The hub is specifically for instructional coaches created by me, an instructional coach. In the hub, we focus on providing specific pathways that meet you where you are in your coaching journey. Differentiation is important when we work with students and even when we coach teachers. Shouldn’t it be important when it comes to your growth as a coach too? (14:13): Absolutely. And that’s why when you join the Hub, you will be prescribed a coaching pathway that will address your specific needs. The Hub also provides a simple framework for you to implement right away. It’s time you start coaching with confidence. And most importantly, the hub is a community with over a hundred instructional coaches from all over the world, you will connect with someone who can support you through any situation you may be dealing with. And the best part is you have a coach walking side by side to support you in your journey. It’s time to elevate your instructional coaching with the Simply Coaching Hub. Check out www.simplycoachinghub.com to learn more. I will see you in the hub. (15:07): So how does a coaching menu look? Is it look like a bingo sheet or does it, can you give me a description of what it is so I could kind of put it together? Chrissy Beltran (15:16): Yeah, totally. So there are different ways to make it look. I choose the simpler route where it’s just options because I find that if I have too many decisions to make, I get decision fatigue. And teachers already have decision fatigue. And so I feel like I just, what I like is it’s kind of like a bingo board, but they don’t have to cover up a certain number of squares or anything, although that could be a fun way to use it. They get to choose from a grid of options to say which one is going to work for them in the time that they’re working with me. So if I’m approaching a teacher, let’s say the teacher has been complaining that their kids don’t know how to write complete sentences, right? Nicole S. Turner (15:50): Right. Chrissy Beltran (15:50): I’m sure you’ve heard that one from literally every teacher ever. And I say, okay, I’m hearing that you’re having a real challenge with that. I would love to help you. Let me look at my coaching menu here. We can take a look and see which support do you think would be most helpful in getting your kids to write complete sentences? We’re focusing the work on the kid, but the teacher is choosing the mode of support. And so they could say, well, I don’t even know where to start. I don’t even know what that kind of instruction looks like. How do I teach grammar? So maybe we need to review some resources, make a plan and model, and we can choose those options from the menu. Or they might say, well, I just want you to model a lesson. I just want to see you do it. And so that way, depending on the amount of efficacy the teacher has, they may be very able to describe what they need. If they don’t know what they need, you can use that as a guide to say, “Does this sound like a good plan to you?” Now, some people actually do more of a menu style, which is very cute, and it has like an appetizer, the main course, and a dessert. Nicole S. Turner (16:50): Ugh! You know how I feel about them. Oh. Ahh! But go ahead. Chrissy Beltran (16:56): No, no. Tell me us. You tell us your thoughts. Nicole S. Turner (16:58): So you know I just cannot take it. I used to be like an appetizer, an entree, a dessert, and you just giving me just a form of like here, pick and choose and make a meal. For me, it’s like I want it to be connected in a different way. So I love the fact that you have the coaching menu. I the bingo board kind of style where people can kind of look and see and that kind of stuff. I just didn’t like the menu analysis. I don’t know. It’s just was something funny to me. Well, yes, people do do it. Chrissy Beltran (17:35): They do. So if that doesn’t turn you off, like it turns off Nicole. If it doesn’t make your skin crawl, then you might look into drawing it. Nicole S. Turner (17:43): But Chrissy, it’s almost as bad as potty pd. You know how I feel about that too. Oh my goodness. Those were the two, the only two things in coaching that I just am like, I can’t do it. Chrissy Beltran (17:57): Just cannot do it. That is so funny. Potty pd. Yeah, potty PD is whenever you provide like something across from the potty in, or in the teachers restroom, you put something on the wall and teachers can read it and just enjoy their personal Nicole S. Turner (18:11): So I’m going to squat to use the restroom and learn a new instructional strategy. Chrissy Beltran (18:16): What bothers me about that is that whenever you, okay, this is off. This is we, I watched Dateline, we are so off. I watched Dateline a long time ago, and they did a test about how far water sprays when you flush a toilet, and it’s very far. Nicole S. Turner (18:32): So the potty PD may have a little potty on it. Chrissy Beltran (18:37): Literally potty pd. Just be aware if you’re going this route, I am not judging you, but you may go with lamination. Nicole S. Turner (18:44): No judgment, y’all. No judgment. We just don’t like it. I remember the day that we saw this, and I believe I sent a screenshot of this loveliness to Chrissy and was like, I can’t. That’s one thing I’m not going to do. Teachers and coaches, if you have to use the restroom, you will not learn a instructional or coaching strategy from me. Just not going to do it. It is your free time to kind of think and process. Chrissy Beltran (19:10): 45 seconds. Yes. Nicole S. Turner (19:12): To thinking process. Yeah. Chrissy Beltran (19:14): No, you’re right. Give them a minute to breathe. Nicole S. Turner (19:17): Right. When do you disconnect? Chrissy Beltran (19:20): Yeah. Not even in the potty. Nicole S. Turner (19:22): Not even in the potty. No, but I’m sorry. Okay. Chrissy Beltran (19:24): No, that’s okay. No, you’re right. If you’re going to make a coaching menu, don’t hang it up in the potty either. Nobody wants to think about you in there. Yes. They want to think about it. Nicole S. Turner (19:31): Could you imagine Chrissy Beltran (19:34): With your face, a picture of your face on it. Nicole S. Turner (19:35): Right! Oh my goodness. Could you, I can’t even imagine that. I can’t even imagine that. This is Coffee and Coaching 2.0. Chrissy Beltran (19:45): It is. Nicole S. Turner (19:45): This is how we used to get down. Chrissy Beltran (19:46): We can’t help it. Nicole S. Turner (19:48): We can’t help it. Back to the menus of what coaches are going to get. Chrissy Beltran (19:53): So yeah, so coaching menus, some of them are set up into that appetizer main course or entree, and then dessert. I guess it depends on how fancy you are as to whether you use main course or entree. And then they would have things that would logically go, kind of the beginning of coaching work and then appetizer. So maybe it’s like a resource review or looking at data. And then they have in the main course, maybe your classroom work, like modeling, co-teaching, observing, and then or maybe another visit to another classroom. And then the dessert is like the end of your coaching work. So maybe it’s, you know you’re going to have a debriefing conversation or you’re going to make a plan for your next lesson, or something along those lines. (20:31): So that’s kind of how some people set it up in terms of like a menu, menu. I just look at a menu as like a choice of options and whether I’m there at dinnertime or not, If I want apple pie, that’s what I’m going to get. So I think that what I like about it is it gives people different levels of coaching involvement that they can choose from. And that’s so beneficial because if you have a teacher who’s not super excited about you, and you are like, let’s choose 17 things from this list that we’re going to do together over the next four weeks. That is a lot. Nicole S. Turner (21:04): They’re going to be like deuces. Chrissy Beltran (21:05): Yes, exactly. But if you look at your menu and they’re like, oh, well, resource recommendation, I think I can tolerate that. What have you got for me? Yeah. That you can show me that would help me with this problem I’m having. So it kind of makes it accessible to teachers at different points. And then teachers who want to jump all in and are ready to go, let’s I want to coteach. I want to teach with you. Let’s do it. You know, have people at the opposite ends of this spectrum in terms of engagement with coaching and excitement about having people in their rooms. And so this menu is broad enough that you could feasibly move somebody from the very beginning of like just barely recommending resources and having those conversations all the way up into team teaching. Nicole S. Turner (21:47): Oh, that’s good. That’s good. I like that scenario. Y’all just don’t use the entrees and the breakfast, Chrissy Beltran (21:57): You can try it out and see if you like it. Nicole S. Turner (21:58): And then lunch. What if you have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and then two snacks? So you got five. Chrissy Beltran (22:06): Like children with toddlers, with two snacks. Nicole S. Turner (22:09): With two snacks. So now we have the breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then two snacks. I think that’s the bomb. Chrissy Beltran (22:16): That’s a reasonable amount of food for the day. Nicole S. Turner (22:18): That’s six options. Chrissy Beltran (22:21): To me, it was like I guess, like you said, I felt like it was stressing me out to think about, okay, this has to go with, like logically, this would go with this would go with this. I don’t even know how this would flow into, this, would flow into that. Like if they chose a weird combination, it would stress me out, I think. So that was kind of why I never went that route. Nicole S. Turner (22:39): Well, what do we talk about this? The breakfast menu would be for your beginning teachers. Chrissy Beltran (22:46): Well, that would work too, if you have, Nicole S. Turner (22:48): Come on! Listen! I’m putting this together. Chrissy Beltran (22:49): That’s cute. That’s very cute. But then the dessert is for your teachers, like my daughter’s pre-K teacher have been teaching for 37 years. Nicole S. Turner (22:57): Right, exactly. So it’s kind of like we’re tiering them inside of a menu. Chrissy Beltran (23:02): But that wouldn’t be really for their knowledge, that would be more for you. Like you would have a breakfast menu. You know what I mean? Nicole S. Turner (23:08): No. Well, no. So I would only give the breakfast menu to beginning teachers. Chrissy Beltran (23:13): Right. But you wouldn’t be like, because you’re a beginning teacher, you get the breakfast menu. Nicole S. Turner (23:16): Yeah. I would be like, you are new. This is options for you. I mean, I’m saying you’re in the middle, so he go your lunch menu. You have, you’re a little seasoned, so here’s dinner menu, and then the two snacks are Chrissy Beltran (23:36): Paraprofessionals. Nicole S. Turner (23:41): What? The two snacks are like anyone, they’re like tasks that anyone can enjoy. Chrissy Beltran (23:48): Oh, I see what you’re saying. Everybody gets snacks. Nicole S. Turner (23:50): Yeah. Oh yeah! I just put together a menu that I – just don’t do it. I know people go listen and be really, really excited about this whole scenario, putting together a menu. Chrissy Beltran (24:07): Their menu for the day, your day of coaching support. Nicole S. Turner (24:10): Exactly. Exactly. Chrissy Beltran (24:12): I guess you could put calories on each item and then they have to create a 1500 calorie diet. Nicole S. Turner (24:16): Oh my goodness. Than we could do the nutrition facts. Is it sugar? Is it sweet or sour? Chrissy Beltran (24:21): Really stressful. It sounds like it’s getting more stressful instead of less, just put a bunch of stuff on a grid. Keep it simple, guys. Nicole S. Turner (24:29): Keep it simple, y’all. Keep it simple. Yes. So I love the coaching menus. And so and you are going to do your session live, right? Yes. Yes, it is at 1:00 PM on day three, which is Wednesday, July 12th, 2023. Chrissy will go live. She is so fun to watch in her PDs. And last year she did a keynote. The year before that she did the live keynote, right? Chrissy Beltran (24:58): Yes, uh huh. Oh, we did it. I did it. Yeah, that’s right. Wow. It’s been a while. Nicole S. Turner (25:01): Yeah. Oh, geez. We just keep doing it and keep doing it. Chrissy Beltran (25:04): That’s right. Nicole S. Turner (25:05): But yeah, so those are some fun things. But this session I know is going to be super interactive and super fun, and I’m sure you going to walk away with some resources because she just can’t help herself. She’s going give you everything that you need immediately to put this in place as you kind of go through that. Alright so Chrissy, I’m asking everyone as we kind of wrap up our session, which I do not want to, but I know that we have to end at some point. Give me three things that you want or three pieces of advice you want to give coaches. Chrissy Beltran (25:37): All right. Well, one, I would say you can’t do everything at once. So really try to focus your work on what’s essential, because you will overwhelm not only yourself, but your teachers if you are trying to do everything all of the time. So that’s a big one. Keep it simple, keep it focused. I think another is be upfront about what your role is and really define that role clearly for your teachers, for your admin. Make sure you’re communicating, you’re all on the same page. Because so many of the coaches that I work with, once we finally get down to the real root of the issues they’re having, it’s because their teachers don’t know what their role is. And the teachers are making up a lot of not very flattering job descriptions. So we want to clarify that right up front. And I think the third piece is to find the joy. You know, we have to find joy in our work and whatever that looks like, whether that looks like you having a pet project or sometimes working with teachers just because you’re excited to work with them, bringing in joy to your PD and your PLC. We are human beings and nobody is going to necessarily go out of their way to bring us joy in our work. We have to do it ourselves, and we deserve that, and we need that. So bring your joy with you, find it wherever you can, and try to make that kind of a big part of the way that you coach people. If you show up with joy, just like the students, people are going to receive you better. Nicole S. Turner (26:57): Oh, yes. I love those three. I think the best one is to show up with joy, because that’s what I always try to do, and I always try to be super positive and just smile, even if it’s a stressful situation. I try to smile through and kind of let teachers know that I’m there to support them in the coaching role because teaching today is completely stressful. (27:20): Well, thank you Chrissy, so much for being on the podcast. I am super excited about the Simply Coaching Summit, and anyone who wants to find Chrissy, they can find her at buzzingwithmsb.com. (27:35): She also has the Buzzing with Ms B, The Coaching Podcast that’s been around for a couple of years, and the confidentliteracycoach.com. All right. I’m remember some of them. Chrissy Beltran (27:47): You’re getting it, yes. Nicole S. Turner (27:49): But I know mostly you can find her on Instagram, on Twitter, I think it’s all under Buzzing with Ms B. Yeah, she is awesome. She is a great coach. She is one of my coaches, and I am so thankful and blessed to be a part of her life and that she is a part of mine, and it is just an awesome experience. (28:10): Well, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode of the podcast, and I will see you guys in the next one. Thanks Krissy so much for joining me. Chrissy Beltran (28:20): Thank you for having me. Nicole S. Turner (28:21): All right. Happy coaching y’all! Chrissy Beltran (28:23): Happy coaching! Nicole S. Turner (28:29): Thanks for listening to the Simply Instructional Coaching Podcast. If you’ve enjoyed this episode and you’d like to help support the podcast, please share it with other coaches and teacher leaders, post about it on social media, and leave a rating or review. To catch all the latest for me, you can follow me on Instagram @simplycoachingandteaching_ and on Twitter @Coachandteach. Thanks again and I’ll see you in the next episode. Happy Coaching.

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